Ch 29 Section 4

Ch 28 Section 4: Problems in
a Time of Plenty

8th Grade Social Studies

Main Idea 1: Not all Americans shared in the growth of the 1950s

● Detail: Large businesses began to buy large amounts of farm land

○

Many small farm families sold their farms and migrated to cities

● Detail: In the South the problems of African-American

sharecroppers and tenant farmers increase when mechanized
cotton pickers replaced workers

● Detail: The popularity of synthetic clothingreduced the demand

for cotton causing southern farmworkers to lose their jobs and
land

● Detail: Decline of coal mining causes ruralpoverty to increase

The number of farms decrease the most during what time period?

Multiple Choice

What happened to the number of farms in the US during the 1950s?

• The number of farms in the US decreased

• The number of farms in the US increased

• The number of farms in the US remained the same

Main Idea 2: Flight of whites to suburbs led to poverty in cities

● Detail: Between 1940 and 1960 more than 3 million

African Americans from the South moved to cities in the
North and Midwest

● Detail: Many poor hispanics also moved to cities
● Detail: only whites were allowed to buy homes in suburbs
● Detail: As suburban population grew business and

factoriesmove to the suburbs leads to fewerjobs in cities

1. What is happening to the % of white students in Dallas city schools?

2. Why is this change occurring?​

Multiple Choice

What is causing the results of the bar graph?

• White families were moving to the city of Dallas

• White families were moving to the suburbs of Dallas?

• African American families are moving to suburbs

Main Idea 3: Change in American society caused some to question new values

● Detail: In the book, The Affluent Society, John

Kenneth Galbraith claims that suburban families
often ignored problems faced by other Americans

● Detail: Group of writers called beatniks, led by

Jack Kerouac book On the Road,criticized
American society.

Multiple Choice

Which of the following groups questioned the values of the 1950s?

• Advertisers

• Suburbanites

• Beatniks

Main Idea 4: Women and African Americans begin questioning their place in society

● Detail: In her book, the Feminine Mystique,

Betty Friedan described the frustration and
unhappiness of suburban housewives

● Detail: African-Americans less willing to accept

status and launch civil rights campaign, troops
sent to desegregateschool in Little Rock
Arkansas

Multiple Choice

What was the purpose of the Feminine Mystique?

• To question the roles of men in 1950s society

• To question the roles of women in 1950s society

• To question the roles of different races in 1950s society

Multiple Choice

What city did Eisenhower send in federal troops to desegregate schools?

• New York City, New York

• Selma, Alabama

• Little Rock, Arkansas